Reasons to be glum...

Research published this week in Psychopathology (International Journal of Descriptive and Experimental Psychopathology, Phenomenology and Psychiatric Diagnosis) makes depressing reading for website editors.

The authors found a close relationship between internet addiction and depression. People classified as addicted to the internet — predominantly to sex, gaming and social networking sites — were moderately to severely depressed according to standard tests, while non-addicted individuals were firmly in the non-depressed range.

Unfortunately, the authors failed to identify a causal relationship and conclude that they need to do more research.

Where does that leave me, you and PJ Online?

At least PJ Online only mentions sex when there’s a legitimate reason to and it would be a very sad individual indeed who found our content titillating. But where do we stand on gaming? Our CPD tests are hardly gambling, but there is an element of risk that might lead to a reward and, yes, we do provide a superficial level of social networking for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

Are you at risk? Am I?

At least I’m not an internet addict. After all, I spend all day in the office working on the internet and then go home to deal with personal and family e-mails, do my online banking and shopping, check what my friends have been up to on a social networking site and have a Skype chat with my daughter in Malawi, so where would I find the time?

Mike Thompson

Editor